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Bruce Bialosky

The Real Effort to Limit the Administrative State

DOGE has sucked up all the oxygen regarding the dismantling of our ridiculously overstuffed federal government. The government has grown out of control as new agencies are regularly birthed with little knowledge of the people funding these agencies – you. Someone has their head on straight in the Trump Administration and they have a plan that should effectively shrink the growth. On February 19th, President Trump signed an executive order to address this issue. The order is entitled Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Deregulator Initiative.

The Executive Order (EO) addresses what requirements should exist for any rulemaking and enforcement and requires agencies to rescind regulations that are inconsistent with laws passed by Congress. To pursue these goals, the EO requires agencies to coordinate with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by providing OMB, within 60 days, with a list of regulations that are: • Unconstitutional or raise “serious constitutional difficulties.”

• Based on unlawful… Read More

Jon Fleischman

The Dangers of Lawfare: A Threat to Democracy – A Local Example

Filing politically motivated lawsuits against opponents is a troubling trend that undermines our democratic processes. Whether you support President-Donald Trump or not, the use of our courts to discredit, distract, and obstruct a political figure is unprecedented in modern U.S. history. This weaponization of the legal system, commonly referred to as “lawfare,” is now being mirrored at the local level here in Orange County, where retired federal bankruptcy Judge Lynn Riddle, a liberal Democrat, has taken aim at elected County Board of Education Member Mari Barke, a conservative Republican, by filing a civil lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court asking Barke comply with California’s political financial disclosure laws and seeking monetary damages that Riddle herself will collect if she prevails.

Riddle’s lawsuit is a glaring example of lawfare—a strategic abuse of the legal system to settle political scores. As a former judge, Riddle should understand the importance of preserving the courts for legitimate grievances, not personal or political vendettas. Her actions are not just disappointing, they’re dangerous.

In this case,… Read More

Ray Haynes

DEI – Meet Your Grandfather, Jim Crow

DEI, an abbreviation standing for “diversity, equity and inclusion” is, according to those who promote it, a program to “institutionalize” and “promote” the “fair treatment and full participation” of traditionally “underrepresented groups.” It seeks to find “underrepresented” groups, set up programs to specifically recruit potential employees from these groups, and when it comes to government services, these programs attempt to “identify unique concerns” of these groups and tailor the administration of the government programs to address these “unique concerns.”

The groups are usually identified by their racial background, that is, African American, Hispanic, Native American or Asian and Pacific Islander or by the sexual orientation of the groups. Sometimes these groups are further segmented by racial background and sexual orientation (gay or lesbian African Americans as an example), and the programs of recruitment or service delivery are further segmented and “tailored” thus delivering a different program or service to these segmented populations than others… Read More

Bruce Bialosky

Honoring a Special Person; Dennis Prager

John F. Kennedy established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. Unfortunately, he did not live to honor the medal’s first recipients. Kennedy was included posthumously in the first class. Over the past 60 years, this recognition has been bestowed on many worthy people. Recent events have led me to focus on someone who measures up for this distinct honor in all respects. Dennis Prager – a beloved friend — suffered a very serious injury as many of you know. Dennis has shown to be the very definition of a person worthy of a President bestowing this medal since his accident. He has arduously moved from a near-death experience back to renewing the many personal attributes that has earned him consideration for this high honor. The team of family and close friends who have pulled together to help his extraordinary wife Sue with nurturing Dennis back to using his unique talents to improve the lives of others is a relatively small validation of his effect on the world. Many of us are daily engaged in providing “DP updates” to nearly everyone we collectively know. This clearly demonstrates the far reaches of those touched by Dennis.… Read More

Ray Haynes

Democrat Mismanagement of California Budget Should NOT be a Reason for a Federal Bailout

Democrats are mystified by the “changes of heart” by Governor Gavin Newsom on certain issues advocated by Republicans, and these Democrats are thinking Newsom is selling them out. He has attacked Republicans at every turn over the last five years, and spent taxpayers’ money on every crazy thing he could think of, let government workers lounge around their house when they’re supposed to be at work, and adopted a lot of other left-wing policies for California, making him the darling of the left-wing Democrats across the country and a leading Democrat contender for President in 2028. Then, all of the sudden, he acknowledged that maybe Republicans are not as bad as he said a little over a year ago, and maybe some of their policies make sense. The left-wingers are losing their mind.

I think I know why he has changed his mind. Those same Republicans he has been attacking for years now have the power to bail him out from the worst consequences of his bad policies over the years. The state is short over $6 billion in its ability to pay for its MediCal health care program, the taxpayer paid free medical program, which provides free medical care… Read More

Ray Haynes

Real Authoritarianism: The Political Persecution of Dr. John Eastman

The State Bar is seeking to disbar Dr. John Eastman. For what, you may ask? Not for theft of millions of dollars from clients. The Bar doesn’t do that if you suck up to the political power structure. Just ask Thomas Girardi, who took millions in client trust funds, which the State Bar ignored for years because Girardi treated the Board of the State Bar to expensive dinners and gifts. So it ignored the dozens of complaints against Girardi for years, allowing him to continue taking his clients’ money.

It isn’t for failure to aggressively and zealously pursue his client’s interests. There are lots of lawyers who fail to do that every day, and they never get investigated, even when a complaint is filed against them. If Dr. Eastman did anything, he aggressively and zealously pursued and protected the interests of the wrong client, that is, President Donald Trump, in a state where doing that is as close to a capital offense as you can get. Democrats across the country believe they were justified in attempting to destroy the life, livelihood, reputation and freedom of hundreds of people whose only sin was supporting Donald Trump, and Dr.… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Informational Hearing On Repairing And Reopening Offshore Oil Drilling near Santa Barbara Highlights Challenge Ahead for California Democrats

Last Thursday, State Senator Monique Limon and Assemblymember Gregg Hart hosted a hearing on the new effort by Sable, a Texas-based oil company, to reopen some offshore oil drilling that has been shut down since the Refugio Oil Spill that took place a decade ago. Before I talk about the hearing a bit, I want to make it clear that everyone wants to make sure that California’s beautiful coastline is preserved for current and future generations. But it is also the case that if you want California to simply be pristine and untouched by humankind, clearly the best plan for that would be to eject the people from the Golden State, and make it one big nature preserve. But of course that is not realistic. There is a reality of 40 million of us living here. That many people are enormous consumers of — everything. Which includes, of course, energy. So it is the job of public policy makers to have a balanced public policy, that both safeguards our natural resources but which has an intense focus on allowing the people in California to flourish in their lives. I do not think I need to write too much about this in this space, but tens of millions of people… Read More

Bruce Bialosky

No DOGE Dividend

When providing analysis to my friends of President Trump’s actions, there is one overriding question. I have criticized positions of Trump despite overwhelmingly supporting his positions and actions. The one clear place with which I currently disagree with and would love to see the Administration change positions is sending checks to taxpayers for cost reductions in the federal government. These reductions would be realized by reducing the federal workforce and reining in expenditures, many of them fraudulent. President Trump has taken many actions for which I am delighted. Banning DEI is among the top. It has a perceived ideological stink, misdirection from our historical standards of equality and promoting merit above physical aspects and wastes time and money on nonsense. I also love banning biological men from women’s sports. God knows how many times I have written about that. My personal favorite move by the President is the banning of paper straws. If there is a common cause of the American people, it is to discard this Leftist boondoggle. The ideas that are generated from DOGE are now penetrating all departments with the approval of the… Read More

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